The present invention relates in general to control systems for activating machines and in particular to a ticket acceptor and validation apparatus for use with a card, tape or the like encoded with magnetic signals.
Most vending machines, laundry and dry cleaning machines and the like which are provided for public use are coin-operated. Many of these machines are made available 24 hours a day and consequently are unattended or are supervised only at great cost. Because of the presence of coins in these machines, the machines have been and are, with increasing frequency in recent years, subject to a great deal of vandalism. The economic losses which have resulted have not been limited to a loss of the coins, but have included additional expenses necessitated by repairs to the damaged control units and coin boxes and the losses associated with machines being operable for long periods of time while the repairs are being made.
There is also associated with a great many coin-operated mechanisms the problem of a lack of adjustability to accept coins of different denominations. Typically, whenever a change is made in the number or type of coins required to operate such mechanisms, the entire mechanism must be replaced. There are mechanisms which accept various combinations of coins and provide change; however, they are generally quite expensive and are typically limited to accepting nickels, dimes and quarters.
In certain foreign countries, paper currency is widely used in denominations corresponding closely to the cost of obtaining goods and services from a machine. Like the more expensive coin-operated mechanisms, a mechanism operable with paper currency is undesirably expensive.
Heretofore, a number of proposals have been made for using a ticket or a card in lieu of coins for activating machines. In one such proposal, a ticket of thermoplastic material is employed as a substrate. On the substrate, there is provided a printed circuit. An apparatus detects the presence of the printed circuit and, if the ticket is valid, activates a machine and destroys the ticket. This is an excellent solution to the problem of vandalism of machines and machine coin boxes, but, unfortunately, each use requires a separate ticket and such tickets tend to be easily duplicated.
Cards bearing magnetic signals, on the other hand, may be used repeatedly for activating a machine by means of an apparatus which records on the card appropriate signals each time the card is used and returning the card to the user. The number of times the card may be used is readily controllable.
Presently, such cards are used repeatedly in locking mechanisms for gaining access to secured areas. Cards of this type are also used for gaining access through turnstiles, as in a subway system. Typically, in the latter case, computers are employed to read an amount encoded on the card. The amount is reduced according to predetermined criteria and a lesser amount recorded on the card in place of the previously encoded amount. While appropriate for large installations, and providing relatively security against fraudulent duplication of cards, the cost and complexity of such computer-augmented control systems mitigate their use in apparatus for controlling the activation of individual vending machines, laundry and dry cleaning machines and the like. Consequently, it is desirable to not only have a relatively inexpensive means for using magnetic cards for operating machines but to have a means by which such cards can be used with a reasonable degree of security against fraudulently produced cards.